Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

As a sometimes-user of such terms, I'll provide a comment.

I can't speak for others, but I do not use the terms to imply that there 
is not some variability in spelling as you say. Since the usual paradigm 
root is qtl these days, a quick representation using English characters 
of the verbal paradigms using this root is as you've given them. If you 
have a better suggestion for formal labels, I'm happy to use them. But 
other terminology does start to get cumbersome, eg conjunction + short 
prefix verb, etc.

Regards,
David Kummerow.

> It seems that people here are of the habit of referring to verb forms
> as WAYYIQTOL or WEYIQTOL or WEQATAL in order to point out
> some differences in spelling or Massoretic pronunciation.
>
> However, the above do not represent Massoretic pronunciation of the
> Qal.  For example, in Deut 32:1 we have [vati$-'ma(] whereas in
> 2 Sam 11:26 we have [vat-ti$-'ma(].  The only difference between
> these two is syllable structure and gemination of the taw.  This is
> obfuscated by the use of "WEYIQTOL" which assumes an "e"
> sound for the schewa (which is known to be wrong) and uses a
> "YI" verbal prefix which would cause the schewa to be realized as
> an [i] by a secondary unrelated development.
>
> If the aim is to discuss the forms present in the Massoretic
> text, the first step should be to properly represent that text.
>
> Yitzhak Sapir